MVN 21, 036

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P120273

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120273.

Transliteration

1(szar2) 7(gesz2) 4(u) 5(disz) geme2 u4 1(disz)-sze3
a2 zi3 ar3-a
a2 u4-du8-a-bi
nu-ub-ga2-ar
ki szesz-saga-ta
kiszib3 da-da-ga
zi3 ar3-a mu us2-sa ki-masz ba-hul
bala mu us2-sa ki-masz mu us2-sa-bi
lu2-du10-ga
dub-sar
dumu ur-nigar[]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 21, 036. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P120273) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120273..

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet

One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.

~3500 BCE

Kish Tablet

Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.

~2450 BCE

Stele of the Vultures

The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.